1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an analytical tool and an analytical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods for constructing a liquid sample analyzing system have been proposed so far. By such an analyzing system, a sample to be analyzed is applied to an analytical tool, and then the analytical tool is mounted to (e.g., set on, into, etc.) an analytical device for performing required analysis. Some of such analytical systems utilize electrophoresis. JP-A-11-337521, for example, discloses an analysis method that uses an analytical tool having a capillary tube and a spare passage perpendicular to the capillary tube. In this method, the sample retained at the j unction of the capillary tube and the spare passage is subjected to electrophoresis. This method is intended to analyze a very small amount of sample precisely.
In the above conventional method, a dilution liquid and a migration liquid are stored in the main analytical device and introduced into the analytical tool. To the end of this liquid introduction, use may be made of a nozzle for sucking up the stored liquids by an amount necessary for performing the analysis. Then, the nozzle is set to a predetermined portion of the analytical tool, and the diluent or the migration liquid is supplied from the nozzle to the analytical tool.
The analytical tool of the above-noted type may be configured as a disposable, while the nozzle of the analytical device is used repetitively. Thus, the sample liquid used for the previous analysis can remain at the tip of the nozzle after the completion of the previous analysis. Since such nozzle contamination would lead to incorrect results in the subsequent analysis, the nozzle must be cleaned each time the current analysis has been done. However, cleaning of the nozzle is troublesome and will deteriorate the efficiency of the analysis. Moreover, the conventional analytical device needs to have a mechanism for operating the nozzle. This makes the structure of the analytical device complicated and causes an increase in the manufacturing cost. Furthermore, the system employing the large analytical device requires special bottles for storing diluent and migration liquids. To arrange these bottles requires extra room for that, and the system will become unduly bulky and costly. Moreover, since it is necessary to store a large amount of diluent and migration liquids for a plurality of times of analysis, the cost for a single analyzing process will be high.